Posts Tagged 'Isoc'

June 6, 2012, marked a milestone in the further advancement of the Internet: World IPv6 Launch Day. It was by no means an Earth-shattering event or a "flag day" where everyone switched over to IPv6 completely ... What actually happened was that content providers enabled AAAA DNS records for their websites and other applications, and ISPs committed to providing IPv6 connectivity to at least 1% of their customers by this date.

What's all of this fuss about the IPv6 transition about? The simplest way to explain the situation is that the current Internet can stay working as it does, using IPv4 addresses, forever ... if we're okay with it not growing any more. If no more homes and businesses wanted to get on the Internet, and no more new phones or tablets were produced, and no more websites or applications were created. SoftLayer wouldn't be able to keep selling new servers either. To prevent or lose that kind of organic growth would be terrible, so an alternative had to be created to break free from the limitations of IPv4.

The long-term goal is to migrate the entire Internet to the IPv6 standard in order to eliminate the stifling effect of impending and inevitable IP address shortages. It is estimated that there are roughly 2.5 billion current connections to the Internet today, so to say the transition has a lot of moving parts would be an understatement. That complexity doesn't lessen the urgency of the need to make the change, though ... In the very near future, end-users and servers will no longer be able to get IPv4 connections to the Internet, and will only connect via IPv6.

The primary transition plan is to "dual-stack" all current devices by adding IPv6 support to everything that currently has an IPv4 address. By adding native IPv6 functionality to devices using IPv4, all of that connectivity will be able to speak via IPv6 without transitional technologies like NAT (Network Address Translation). This work will take several years, and time is not a luxury we have with the dwindling IPv4 pool.

Like George mentioned in a previous post, I see World IPv6 Launch day as a call-to-action for a "game changer." The IPv6 transition has gotten a ton of visibility from some of the most recognizable names on the Internet, but the importance and urgency of the transition can't be overstated.

So, what does that mean for you?

To a certain extent, that depends on what your involvement is on the Internet. Here are a few steps everyone can take:

Learn all you can about IPv6 to prepare for the work ahead. A few good books about IPv6 have been published, and resources like ARIN's IPv6 Information Wiki are perfect places to get more information.

If you own servers or network equipment, check them for IPv6 functionality. Upgrade or replace any software or devices to ensure that you can deliver native IPv6 connectivity end-to-end without any adverse impact to IPv6 users. If any piece of gear isn't IPv6-capable, IPv6 traffic won't be able to pass through your network.

If you are a content provider, make your content available via IPv6. This starts with requesting IPv6 service from your ISP. At SoftLayer, that's done via a zero-cost sales request to add IPv6 addresses to your VLANs. You should target 100% coverage for your services or applications — providing the same content via IPv6 as you do via IPv4. Take an inventory of all your DNS records, and after you've tested extensively, publish AAAA records for all hostnames to start attracting IPv6 traffic.

If you are receiving Internet connectivity to your home or business desktops, demand IPv6 services from your upstream ISP. Also be sure to check your access routers, switches and desktops to ensure they are running the most recent code with stable IPv6 support.

If you are running equipment such as firewalls, load balancers, IDS, etc., contact your vendors to learn about their IPv6 support and how to properly configure those devices. You want to make sure you aren't limiting performance or exposing any vulnerabilities.

Starting now, there are no more excuses. It's time to get IPv6 up and running if you want to play a part in tomorrow's Internet.

On Tuesday, the Internet Society announced "World IPv6 Launch Day", a huge step in the transition from IPv4 to IPv6. Scheduled for June 6, 2012, this "launch day" comes almost one year after the similarly noteworthy World IPv6 Day, during which many prominent Internet businesses enabled IPv6 AAAA record resolution for their primary websites for a 24-hour period.

With IPv6 Day serving as a "test run," we confirmed a lot of what we know about IPv6 compatibility and interoperability with deployed systems throughout the Internet, and we even learned about a few areas that needed a little additional attention. Access troubles for end-users was measured in fractions of a percentage, and while some sites left IPv6 running, many of them ended up disabling the AAAA IPv6 records at the end of the event, resuming their legacy IPv4-only configuration.

We're past the "testing" phase now. Many of the IPv6-related issues observed in desktop operating systems (think: your PCs, phones, and tablets) and consumer network equipment (think: your home router) have been resolved. In response – and in an effort to kick IPv6 deployment in the butt – the same businesses which ran the 24-hour field test last year have committed to turning on IPv6 for their content and keeping it on as of 6/6/2012.

But that's not all, folks!

In the past, IPv6 availability would have simply impacted customers connecting to the Internet from a few universities, international providers and smaller technology-forward ISPs. What's great about this event is that a significant number of major broadband ISPs (think: your home and business Internet connection) have committed to enabling IPv6 to their subscribers. June 6, 2012, marks a day where at least 1% of the participating ISPs' downstream customers will be receiving IPv6 addresses.

While 1% may not seem all that impressive at first, in order to survive the change, these ISPs must slowly roll out IPv6 availability to ensure that they can handle the potential volume of resulting customer support issues. There will be new training and technical challenges that I suspect all of these ISPs will face, and this type of approach is a good way to ensure success. Again, we must appreciate that the ISPs are turning it on for good now.

What does this mean for SoftLayer customers? Well the good news is that our network is already IPv6-enabled ... In fact, it has been so for a few years now. Those of you who have taken advantage of running a dual-stack of IPv4 and IPv6 addresses may have noticed surprisingly low IPv6 traffic volume. When 6/6/2012 comes around, you should see that volume rise (and continue to rise consistently from there). For those of you without IPv6 addresses, now's the time to get started and get your feet wet. You need to be prepared for the day when new "eyeballs" are coming online with IPv6-only addresses. If you don't know where to start, go back through this article and click on a few of the hyperlinks, and if you want more information, ARIN has a great informational IPv6 wiki that has been enjoying community input for a couple years now.

The long term benefit of this June 6th milestone is that with some of the "big guys" playing in this space, the visibility of IPv6 should improve. This will help motivate the "little guys" who otherwise couldn't get motivated – or more often couldn't justify the budgetary requirements – to start implementing IPv6 throughout their organizations. The Internet is growing rapidly, and as our collective attentions are focused on how current legislation (SOPA/PIPA) could impede that growth, we should be intentional about fortifying the Internet's underlying architecture.

As you may have seen earlier in the week, SoftLayer is joining ISOC's 24-hour IPv6 "test flight" as a part of World IPv6 Day on June 8, 2011.

As I alluded in ISOC's press release, SoftLayer is a hosting provider, but we aren't going to be an effective resource for our customers if we don't adopt the newest technologies and platforms for future growth. Because we've built our business around that idea, you won't see many substantial changes when June 8 rolls around ... We were a little ahead of the curve in December 2008 when we began providing native IPv6 support to our publicly available services. The point of this Internet-wide event is not about getting there first, though ... It's about everyone getting there.

What does World IPv6 day mean to you? Probably little to nothing in the short-run. While there's a unanimous sense of urgency to be prepared, the real deadline is still a little ways into the future. If you're a SoftLayer customer, it's pretty easy for you to take part in your own World IPv6 Day: Provision your free IPv6 /64 on your server and start using them.

I encourage you to set goals for IPv6 functionality for the near future so you don't find yourself scrambling for a solution when you can't get any new IPv4 addresses. Don't let the fact that ARIN still has 5.20 IPv4 /8s in aggregate lull you into inaction ... The well will run dry, and the sooner you're ready for it, the better. Would your business be ready to flip the switch to IPv6 on June 8?